Fort St. Vrain Eagle Nest (Side View)

A Nest Built to Last

Perched high in a sturdy cottonwood tree, this eagle nest spans roughly nine feet wide and eight feet tall, sitting dozens of feet above the ground. Photographers Bob Anderson and Rob MacIntyre first installed a camera here in 2003, when the nest was already a well-established fixture along the riverbank.

Life on the St. Vrain River

The nest sits in a cottonwood on the banks of the St. Vrain River, on property owned by Xcel Energy near Platteville, Colorado. From this vantage the resident eagles can survey the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the west and the nearby confluence of the St. Vrain and South Platte rivers.

An Annual Cycle of Nesting

Each year the resident pair returns to lay eggs, incubate them for weeks, and raise their eaglets until the young birds are ready to fledge the nest. The cycle repeats season after season, making this one of the longer-running bald eagle nest cams in the region.

A Nest Rebuilt

When the primary limb supporting the structure came down in 2020, Xcel Energy partnered with raptor researchers to install a new support and restore the nest. The eagles returned to it within days, and the rebuilt nest continues to anchor this riverside eagle family today.